Twins owner Carl Pohlad turns 93 next month, but he remains involved with the team he has owned since 1984.

Pohlad met with his Twins front office staff as recently as Friday about baseball matters and is thrilled with the job general manager Bill Smith and manager Ron Gardenhire have done to keep the club in contention. Pohlad remains close to former GM Terry Ryan, who left that position last year to evaluate players.

These days, though, Pohlad defers to son Jim on most baseball business matters. But on major decisions, Carl still makes the final call. Jim represented ownership at the recent All-Star Game in New York.

Pohlad is equally enthused about the Twins' new ballpark, which will open in 2010, and was excited after getting a recent tour of the construction. It took 11 years of lobbying before the ballpark was publicly approved.

The upcoming NHL season will be the first full season for Wild owner Craig Leipold, who says he's after the Stanley Cup.

"There will be 30 owners who will start the first game in early October expecting to win the Stanley Cup, and I'll be one of those 30 owners," Leipold said. "When we won the Northwest Division championship last season in the division that I think is the toughest division, we ran into a great goaltender in the first round, and it did us in. We think our team is better this year than it was last year, and we think we'll go farther than we did last year.

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A handful of architectural designs expected to be presented to the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission in February for a proposed Vikings stadium on the site of the Metrodome will include 65,000 seats and 155 private suites. But no plan for public financing.

Ex-Gopher Jeff Taffe's new one-year contract with the Pittsburgh Penguins is for $550,000 if he plays in the NHL, $100,000 if he plays in the American Hockey League.

That was new Timberwolf Mike Miller in the third row behind home plate at Sunday's Twins-Texas Rangers game at the Metrodome, courtesy of his agent, who bought the tickets.

Ex-Gophers center Spencer Tollackson has signed with a top-level pro basketball team in Germany.

The Gophers women's basketball Fast Break Club booster group raised nearly $50,000 so the team can play four games in Rome, Florence, Venice and Lake Como in Italy next month.

Don't be surprised if Minnesota State Mankato women's basketball coach Lori Fish, who interviews for the St. Cloud State job today, ends up with that job.

Longtime Gophers men's athletics booster Shelley Walsh, who founded Olympic Hills Golf Club in Eden Prairie, died last weekend after a long illness. Walsh and Don Knutson were the first boosters to welcome Gophers football coach Murray Warmath to town when he was hired.

New Wild investor Bob Marvin of the noted Warroad, Minn., hockey family is also the mayor of Warroad.

Golf's "King," Arnold Palmer, was to fly from the Twin Cities to Rochester on Monday in his private jet for his annual physical at the Mayo Clinic.

Golf legends Lee Trevino, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Jim Colbert received nice checks for playing in a corporate pro-am Monday at the TPC in Blaine. Colbert said he lost 21 pounds on his new cookie-eating diet.

Only 135 volunteer openings remain available from among 3,500 to work next year's PGA Championship at Hazeltine National.

Kid to watch: Bloomington Jefferson freshman Marcus Alipate, who hit 29 three-point shots for the Howard Pulley Panthers in a recent AAU basketball tournament in Kansas City. Alipate is a brother of Moses Alipate, the Jefferson senior quarterback who has committed to the Gophers.

Jamal Abu-Shamala of the Gophers averaged nearly 14 points and 7.2 rebounds for the Jordan national basketball team that won the recent William Jones Cup tournament in China and this weekend will play for the King Abdullah II Cup in Jordan.

DON'T PRINT THAT

In Las Vegas last spring, many casinos placed the Twins' victory total this season for over/under betting at either 74 or 75. With 55 victories already, a lot of bettors are sorry they didn't wager.

With baseball's trade deadline in 10 days, one rumor has Los Angeles Angels utility player Robb Quinlan of St. Paul and minor league third baseman Brandon Wood headed to Atlanta for slugger Mark Teixeira, who can become a free agent at season's end.

Bruce Fleisher, who has made $13.7 million on the Champions Tour in five years, stopped by Gross Golf Club in Minneapolis before playing in the 3M Championship last week to practice on the mats-only driving range wearing a T-shirt and jeans. When he was asked to hit on the mats rather than the grass in front, Fleisher kindly obliged.

Legendary Arnold Palmer, 78, was buoyed during the Greats of Golf event at the TPC after outdriving Miller Barber and Don January, both of whom had surpassed him in distance in recent years.

Gene Littler, winner of 29 PGA Tour events and eight Champions Tour tournaments, and who turned 78 on Monday, showed up at the 3M Championship with a set of clubs that looked like they were from the 1950s.

OVERHEARD

3M Championship director Hollis Cavner, who said Monday that the TPC course in Blaine might have to be toughened up a bit after R.W. Eaks won with a record 23 under par: "We still want people to make birdies. We just don't want them to make 23 of them."